2018 Honda Odyssey Arrives With a New Look and Crazy Amounts of Tech

It seems like it’s been forever and a day, but the Honda Odyssey finally gets its much-needed redesign at the 2017 Detroit Auto Show. Not only does it look all new, but it has plenty of new, useful features to go along with it.

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In terms of styling, there is nothing overly surprising. Its design pulls a lot from the new Pilot and Civic, particularly the grille, headlights and standard LED taillights. Buyers will also notice a new power rear liftgate with foot activation.

Inside, Honda has finally done away with the Odyssey’s hard-plastic dashboard material and replaced it with more soft-touch materials. There is also a new 7-inch display in the instrument cluster, an available 8-inch high-resolution Display Audio touchscreen with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, available stain-resistant leather seating, and more.

The available technology is also quite impressive on the new Odyssey. Available on this redesigned minivan is CabinWatch, which gives the front-seat occupants a camera to watch the kiddos in the back; CabinTalk, which allows the driver to talk to the rear passengers through an intercom; a 10.2-inch rear entertainment system with PBS Kids, iHeart Radio, Spotify, a “How Much Further” app to track trip progress and more; and CabinControl, which allows parents to control the rear seat entertainment, climate control and more through a smartphone.

Speaking of the rear seats, Honda debuts its new Magic Slide Seats in the second row. With this system, parents can remove the center seat in the middle row, allowing them to slide the middle seats back and forth across the floor. There are four main modes: easy access mode, super mode, wide mode and buddy mode.

Easy access mode allows the middle seats to slide into any of their five positions across the car, giving access to the third row, even with rear-facing car seats in place. Super mode, which slides the driver’s side middle seat all the way forward and folds the seatback for maximum walking room to the third row. Wide mode puts the two middle seats as far from each other as possible for those “keep your hands to yourself” moments. Finally, Buddy mode pushes the two middle seats together.

Under its hood, the Odyssey retains its 3.5-liter V-6 engine, but its power now sits at 280 horsepower – a 32-pony increase. Two transmissions are available: a standard nine-speed auto and an optional 10-speed auto on higher trims.

The 2018 Honda Odyssey will hit showrooms in the spring of 2017. Pricing will come at a later date.

After years of handling problem cars in repair shops, Justin regained his love for cars by writing about them. Many years later and countless hours of banging on the keys trying for formulate sentences that actually make sense, he has managed to parlay a hobby into a career. Justin is a bit of a petrol-head and has a severe weakness for lightweight sports cars and insanely powerful supercars.